You get off the plane from NYC, dump your stuff off at the boat, then hop on the subway and get off at Stephansplatz. Suddenly, you are in a new world, like not Kansas anymore. Even for folks like us who have travelled quite a bit, it was awesome to climb up the subway stairs and to be greeted with this. With a dose of jetlag, it feels hallucinatory:
More snaps below the fold -
Gargoyles on St. Stephan's"
I think this is Pietersplatz. Nice cafes everywhere.
St. Pieter's doesn't look like much on the outside, just an ordinary 18th c. church - but inside it is Baroque City:
A dirndl shop. Dirndls, loden, and lederhosen:
We just used the subways. Did not learn the trolley lines but we liked the cheerful look of them:
The Hapsburg palace. That's where they have the Lippizaners - and the library.
In the library. Lots of Ottoman arabic texts:
Viennese coffee and pastries at Demel:
There was some sort of food and film festival. Food looked good. This was in front of the Rathaus:
Out in the suburbs near the Danube quay. Thought this was an interesting variety of multi-ethnic foods:
Outside the central city, blocks of public housing from the era when Vienna was known as "Red Vienna." As you move further from downtown, you can date these blocks from the 1920s to the 1960s. I do not think they are doing this anymore. Cells for "the people."
The lad and I explored nighttime Vienna, wandered down the Kartner Strasse and down through the old Jewish quarter. The town was hopping, cafes full. Cannot find my pics of Kartner Strasse at night, but there was a nice Burger King there (which we did not patronize, but did take advantage of their clean WC).
Oh, here's one of Kartner Strasse:
On a side street off Kartner, the inevitable:
Our Vienna home, at the quay:
Here's an interesting beer my son had to try on the boat's sunroof - "Original" Czech Budweiser. Nothing like our Budweiser:
That's enuf for now -
